Sam Hall

 This week football has taken a back seat in most mainstream society, talk has been of the tragic circumstances surrounding Gary Speed and more recently the prevalence of abusive racism in England. I abhor racism, I cannot stand it and simply just don’t understand it, thus after watching My Tram Experience I felt angry and offended. If you haven’t seen the video- please go and watch it. It is racially aggravated abuse in the oldest form. What’s worse is that she has a child sat on her lap all while she screams abuse at ethnic minorities in her carriage who seem stunned by the outburst. What also frustrates me is the fact that, while this video sets out to oppose racism, some people gain inspiration from the clip, some people find it liberating and empowering to hear “The voice of the forgotten race”. I think it is just wrong.

This clip comes just weeks after allegations of racism on the football pitch, with John Terry and Luis Suarez- now charged- both accused of making inappropriate and uncalled for comments. In the aftermath of this whole issue Sepp Blatter-FIFA President- came out and said , “He should say that this is a game. We are in a game, and at the end of the game, we shake hands, and this can happen, because we have worked so hard against racism and discrimination.” That is not acceptable, especially when I experienced racism first hand at the Middlesbrough v West Ham match.

We were losing 1-0 to West Ham, Frédéric Piquionne had scored their goal with a pretty simple header. I was frustrated by this, felt it wasn’t true football;the type Mowbray likes. However, throughout my frustration the colour of the player’s skin never came in to it. Not once did I think ‘Oh look a black player has scored’ just as when Emnes scores I do not do the same. So when from beside me I hear, “They’re going do the same thing all the time, Just lob it up on to his stupid black f**king head!”, I felt extremely uncomfortable. While many will argue that this man has simply described what he has seen, I find it so inappropriate to speak like that today. He would have imploded had he seen Carlton Cole round Jason Steele in the 94th minute. All around me are children of varying ages, for them to be subject to the kind of language and values is unacceptable. If their parents want to instill those beliefs in to them in the privacy of their own home, while I would oppose it and be disgusted, so be it. It is then not affecting other peoples families. The guy seemed to be generally quite nice, I had a chat with him and he didn’t seem to be too bad, but as soon as he brought a player’s skin colour in to the game I just couldn’t enjoy his company.

Racism in the stands has always been present and most probably will always remain in some form. Yet, that doesn’t mean that just because it has been that it should be.  For me I find the fact that Nick Clegg has given a well done to English football for ‘employing talented black players’ condescending and patronizing. Are we meant to see this as a well done for just employing talented players, or is it simply because they are black. Why would English club’s not employ black players if they were talented, why would we not employ black players full stop? Clegg’s comments paint football as a racist business who need to be thanked every time they do something to help the ‘black society’. Maybe I’m just easily offended, maybe I am too politically correct or am I just looking for trouble to stir?

Well whatever I am, it’s extremely clear that Racism is still alive in football and in England. While there is a continuous push to rid society of it, we will never fully succeed. When people raise their children in a racist household, their ideologies will be perpetuated. It’s depressing that this happens when there are more people out there willing to stand up for people regardless of colour or creed. I’d like to say that I’d never encountered racism, or that I’d helped to stop it. Sadly I haven’t; I didn’t speak to the man at the match about his behaviour, primarily because I hoped what he’d said was a mistake that had slipped out. Maybe it was a mistake because he didn’t carry on, but that’s not the only time I’ve ever heard racist abuse in public.

Cheers,
Sam